All set up and ready to go – The
Boy’s forces are to the left, The Girl’s to the right.

The Boy’s forces

The Girl’s forces

Turn One

The Girl, being the “attacker”,
went first. The Serjeants (mounted and foot) all managed to move forward. The
Men-at-Arms failed their activation and ended the turn (so the Archers didn’t move
in the first turn either.

The Boy managed to move his two
units of Expert Serjeants and the Archers, but the Crossbowmen just didn’t see
the point of getting a move on as the enemy were clearly coming to them!

Turn Two

The Girl has managed to get all
her forces moving ahead this turn and The Boy has gotten his two units of
Serjeants moving….

Then he shot with his archers!

First casualty of the game is
one of the Girl’s Mounted Crossbowmen! They passed their courage test and stood
firm in the face of… um… arrows…

The boys crossbowmen again
decided to sharpen their bolts or grease their levers or something because they
were just NOT getting a move on.

Turn Three

The Girl’s foot all surged
forward – angered by the loss of their fellow mounted serjeant! Then the
mounted crossbow fired… well… not back at the archers (because they were out of
range, and to move closer would have put them in a position where they would be
essentially surrounded on three sides), but at the foot serjeants creeping up
on their left.

They caused two casualties!

The Serjeants failed their
courage test and very nearly fled of the table!

At the beginning of The Boy’s
turn the Serjeants rallied!

The Boy then retaliated by
having his archer rain down more arrows on the mounted Serjeants – taking out a
second one! Again, their courage held.

The Other Serjeants advanced
and, I think the Crossbowmen may have begrudgingly shuffled forward (I didn’t
make a note of it, but they don’t seem quite so close to the table edge here…)

Turn Four

The Girl’s foot Serjeants
charged in against The Boy’s Serjeants (which included his leader!). Huzzah!

Both sides lost two. The Girl’s
Serjeants failed courage and ran away.

The Girl then moved up her foot
Men-at-Arms, but the Mounted Serjeants (with the crossbows) failed to activate
ending her turn before the Archers could do anything…

The Boy took advantage of the
fleeing, battered enemy Serjeants and followed them up! Neither side caused any
casualties… so… The Boy’s Serjeants retreated… which seemed a little odd (as
The Girl’s Serjeants were already “battered”)… but that’s how it worked out.

The Boy’s archers shot at the
Mounted Serjeants again, but this time caused no casualties.

The Crossbow were up to their
usual shenanigans (“No sense in tiring ourselves out boys… they’ll come to
us!”)

Turn Five

The Girl failed to rally her
foot Serjeants so they lost another member of their unit…

The foot Men-at-Arms charged
into contact with the enemy Serjeants!

They slew three of the enemy
Serjeants, but the Serjeants sold themselves dearly and took two Men-at-Arms
with them!

So the Serjeants fled from the
Men-at-Arms.

This time it was The Girl’s Archers
turn to fail to activate, leaving the mounted Serjeants stranded in the open
wondering what to do.

The boy moved his Serjeants away
from the Men-at-Arms – thinking his luck wouldn’t hold out against them… the
Archers them failed to activate and no one else did anything for the rest of
the turn…!?

I guess everyone was awed by the
ferocity of the clashes in the middle of the field and just stood looking on…

Turn Six

The Girl rallied the foot
Serjeants and moved the Men-at-Arms towards the lightly armoured Crossbowmen
(as the Serjeants didn’t seem interested in defending them!?). Her Archers,
however, failed to activate AGAIN!? That’s three turns in a row that neither
her archers nor Mounted Serjeants were able to activate!? Wow…

The Boy managed to motivate his
Archers to shoot on the mounted Serjeants, causing another casualty, but not
ablt to make them lose courage. Then the Crossbowmen failed to shoot at the
Men-at-Arms and so neither of the Serjeants got a go.

Turn Seven

The Girls started the turn of
with failing to move her Men-at-Arms (and thus everyone else!)

The Boy managed to get his
archers to shoot on the Mounted Serjeants, causing yet another casualty!?

This time they decided to pack
up their crossbows and get out of there!

The Crossbowmen FINALLY
activated this turn!! They shot on the foot Men-at-Arms and caused… one
casualty… Well it was enough to bring them to half strength.

Seeing that they were now at a
considerable advantage, The Boy sent his foot Serjeants (with his leader) back
into combat with the enemy Men-at-Arms!

Two of them were cut down! The
remaining one super failed courage - the Girl Rolled 3, +1 for leader being
there (the only one left) but –5 for the fallen members of the unit. Negative
numbers means the unit routs off the table or surrenders – we figured as there
was only the one left facing six Serjeants, she probably surrendered herself to
be ransomed…

But them the Serjeants also failed their courage test (having lost one of their own) – not enough
to rout off the table – but enough to be “battered” and retreat from the
fight…?

At the loss of the leader the
Girl’s foot Sergeants also lost courage and retreated.

As it was past bedtime and
things were looking poorly for the Girl’s retinue we called it a night.

We all thought it was a pretty
fun game – we’ll definitely play some more of this – perhaps in the new year
when our study of world history brings us to the middle ages. As I had
mentioned in the previous post the kids each have a few boxes of Hät plastic 28mm Andalusians
and Almoravids (and I’ve been eyeing up some Crusader
Miniatures and Perry
Miniatures for some possible additions to my own Retinues in the new
year…)

It wasn't a terribly bloody game. The Boy lost only 8 Sergeants - out of a force of 48 - and not all of them would be dead. The Girl suffered a little worse - losing the 5 Men-at-Arms, 3 Serjeants, and 4 Mounted Serjeants. Most of those Men-at-Arms were probably just knocked down and couldn't get up for the weight of their armour (lying on the ground yelling "come back 'ere, I'll bit your leg off!")!

They seemed to have the WORST luck with the activations, I wonder how much more damage they could have caused had they actually been able to MOVE more of their troops into range/contact. The Girl's archers did NOTHING the whole game - except move twice - in seven turns!? The Boys second unit of Serjeants took two casualties from the mounted (crossbow-armed) Serjeants. Speaking of them, they looked promising at the beginning - galloping ahead, shooting down a few Serjeants... but then sat doing nothing for the rest of the game - taking the occasional casualty. My kids have played a fair bit of DBA/HOTT and Song of Blades and Heroes, so they are well used to having troops just not do stuff, and, though a bit frustrated, took it all in stride- we have fun making up reasons for why they don't do stuff... but when multiple units don't do stuff for over half the game... I guess everyone was just "shocked and awed" by the violence going on in the middle of the field..?

For all that the game flowed fairly smoothly. The seven turns might have taken an hour and a half, but it sure didn't feel like it. And for a game that I had only just finished reading it though once - I had to look up rules a minimal amount of times. Everything seemed pretty straightforward.

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Not sure… We’re busy working on finishing up Hallowe’en
costumes this week. Next week I’m hoping to get in some sort of game with the Ancient/Mythical
Greeks – probably using Song
of Blades and Heroes.

Friday, October 24, 2014

I’ve spent the better part of the last week’s hobby time
organized, planning, re-basing, and repainting a bunch of figures to put
together some sort of Retinue so we can try these rules out. A number of the
figures I’m using are some of the oldest figures I have that still have their
original paint on them (I have a few older figures – but I’ve mostly stripped
and repainted them in recent years…)! They were the retinue of Baron Philippe
du Lapin – one of the first miniature armies I put together (and the last of
the Warhammer armies I put together). The force was mostly made up of old Wargames Foundry
(Hundred Years War, Barons war – mail ordered from England in the pre-internet
days) and Citadel Historical miniatures (War of the Roses) – with a few
gen-u-ine Games
Workshop Bretonians, as they became available. Other figures have
worked their way into this force – some Front
Rank Figures War of the Roses Billmen and some Axemen of some sort
from Old
Glory… There’s even a few I modeled and cast myself (see if you can
spot them!).

Most of them were re-based a number of years back to form
part of a generic medieval human DBA/HOTT army. As it was never a complete army
and I have plenty of other armies I could use for Humans in HOTT (all the Dark
Ages

DBA armies

) I figured I could make better use of
these as the core of a couple of Retinues for Lion
Rampant.

Here’s what I’ve put together so
far…

(Remember: click on the pictures
for a bigger version):

The entire Retinue so far. This
reprents about 42 points worth of troops – Retinues are generally to be built
around 24 – so I have almost enough for two full forces… unfortunately these
have mostly been painted all the same colour (as they were to be one force
originally).

I’m hoping over the weekend we
can find some way to split them up and get them on the table to try out the
rules – I do have more stuff I can paint up to make a second complete retinue
(in different colours!) if (when!) we really get into this!

The chap up front with the Bunny
Rampants on the shirld is one of the oldest figures I own – one that I
repainted a few years back – after scraping of layers of old acrylics and older
Testors paints. I think it may have been made by a company called Heritage…? He
was used for many D&D characters over the years. The four immediately
behind him are Wargames
Foundry (with original 23 year old paint – for the most part – I
touched one up a bit this week and the others could do with a little love), and
the woman in the back was, I think, an old Citadel Miniature (ebay purchase a
few years back – stripped off paint from previous owner and repainted).

Expert Foot Serjeants – Regular
Serkeants have spears and shields – as these guys have two-handed-choppy-choppy
weapons they get classified as “Expert” – 6 points

Recently
painted additions that I got in a trade a few years back and never
got around to doing much with. They were also earmarked for use in a DBA/HOTT
army, but as I never got to painting them, they didn’t need to be re-based. The
figures are from Front Rank
Figures

MORE Expert Foot Serjeants – 6 points

A mix of Hundred Years War
Billmen and other Medieval two-handed sword and axemen from Wargames
Foundry. I’ve had them for 23 years – mostly in original paint –
though a few have been touched up over the years.

Mounted Serjeants with Crossbow
upgrade – 4 points

Old Citadel Historical War or
the Roses figures – these were likely part of my earlier Empire Army (and were
originally painted with purple and green colours). Some I repainted earlier,
some I re-based and re-painted this week).

Crossbowmen – 4 pints

More of the Wargames
Foundry I’ve had for 23 years. Mostly original colours – though a few
were recently touched up or entirely re-painted.

Archer Unit #1 – 4 points

A mix of Wargames
Foundry (Hundred Years War, Barons war) and gen-u-ine Games Workshop
- it’s hard to tell which are which – they were both sculpted by the perrys and
I think, at one point, some of the same figures were available from both the
foundry and GW…

Archer Unit #2 – 4 points

As above…

Bidowers – light skirmishing scouts and woodsmen - 2 points

More of the 23 year old Wargames Foundry.
Original paint jobs – these were part of a unit of scouts. Bidowers seem to
have pretty much the same function…

STILL MORE Expert Foot Serjeants
– 6 points

These are the Old
Glory figures. I’m not entirely sure what range they came from. I got
them in a trade a few years back, painted and based them for HOTT, and re-based
them this week. This will be the core of my new opposing force retinue… Those
dastardly black-hearted souls from a across the river that are constantly
raiding and harrying the lands of Baron du Lapin…

Without even BUYING any new
figures I should also be able to put together (by painting up figures I already
have kicking around) another retinue to oppose good ol’ Baron Philippe. I
should have enough to build

2x Mounted Men-at-Arms – some Old Glory
Crusader-types – I think… (one of these will join this force and include the
good Baron) @ 6 points

I also have a bunch of Old glory
Medieval Irish Spear and Axe men I should sort out and make into units
(probably two more)…? Could be another 8-12 points…?

The kids also have a bunch of
Hät plastic 28mm
Almoravids and Andalusians that I picked up for them to make DBA/HOTT armies,
but I have a feeling they’d rather paint them up individually and use them for
something more like this…

In Other News…

I finally finished up the
Graphic Novel Book Shelf… I had hoped I’d be able to get all my comics on this
unit and have space left over for the inevitable books I will acquire in the
future. Alas… I have gathered up all the books from the previous shelves and
boxes and stacks about the house and spent a good chunk of time organizing them
all onto this shelf only to find the shelf almost full and I still have these
boxes on the floor to get on there somewhere!?!?

They will be joining my Fourth Canadian Division’s artillery
(not that the artillery will likely ever be put on the table…).

I have been trying to keep my
painting and gaming thematically related to the history I’ve been reading about
with the kids. We’ve finally gotten to the Greeks so I’ve been wanting to get
back to painting hoplites (and I have painted a few!) and palying some games
with those (perhaps even bust out Of
Gods and Mortals) but I recently picked up Lion
Rampant and have been somewhat distracted by it.I’ve planning and trying to organize a
few forces to try it out. This has required painting up a few things and
rebasing a bunch more – mostly old Citadel historicals and Wargames Foundry
figures I bought about 25 years ago that were in some of my original Warhammer
armies – I later rebased them for DBA/HOTT thinking I’d put together some
generic medieval/fantasy human armies… but I got to thinking I’ll probably not
get to that any time soon so I’ve re-re-based them individually so they can be
used for skirmishy gaming with A
Song of Blades and Heroes (or Song
of Arthur and Merlin?) and Lion
Rampant.

I should probably just set it aside for now and know we’ll
get to it next summer/fall when we get to medieval times in the reading… In the
meantime here are a few figures I painted up to finish a unit of “Foot
Serjeants”…

These lads are (I think) from Front Rank Figures War
of the Roses line (I got them in a trade a few years back).

And here they are with the rest of their unit (that I painted previously).

I have a half dozen other units
I should have ready shortly to try out a game – more on that shortly.

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

A few more Medieval types THEN (hopefully)
I’ll get back to the Hoplites (and Amazons and Greek Gods and mythical
beasties!)

Monday, October 20, 2014

Just a few items rolling off the
workbench this week. I’ve been busy with other projects… I'm back to the ancients at least - though I've been a little distracted this past weekend with other miniature possibilities - more on that shortly.

These are some new bookshelves I built upstairs
for my graphic novel collection (I am a bit of a comic geek…). I have to build
some bookshelves for the kids next (which won’t be quite as big as these) and
after that I’ll be building another set in the basement war room for all my military history books (they’ll be
even BIGGER than these!!)

I have at least been getting in some boardgaming lately – a
LOT of boardgaming!

WE finished up reading about
ancient Mesopotamia for the time being with a chapeter on NebuchadnezzarII and
the hanging gardens he built for his Persian wife Amytis, so we busted out Hanging
Gardens.

I also read Shadow Over
Innsmouth with the kids – so we busted out Innsmouth
Escape - which I’ve had for a few years but was waiting for the stars
to be right to play…. (I asked Amanda and the kids to do their best Deep One
impression for the photo – Amanda kind of really nailed the Innsmouth look
there… almost worries me a little…).

I also recently picked up Cthuhu:
Hastur La Vista Baby. The game is set in Kingsport, so I’m trying to
think of which Lovecraft tales were set there that I could read with the kids
before we crack this one… Any ideas?

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Ugh… who knows… at the rate I’m painitng it will be a couple
weeks before I post any freshly painted figures… perhaps there will be a game
report in the meantime.